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Company: Country Archer Provisions, San Bernardino, CA
Company Description: Country Archer Provisions is the leading better-for-you jerky and meat snack company committed to using only 100% grass-fed and finished beef, all-natural, antibiotic-free turkey and pork, and real ingredients. Crafting real food to craft a better world isn’t just a tagline – it’s a mission and why all its meat snacks are only ever made with high-quality, premium, and clean ingredients.
Nomination Category: Marketing Campaign Categories - Industry
Nomination Sub Category: Marketing Campaign of the Year - Food
 Nomination Title: Calling All Grassholes
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this first question: Specify the date on which this campaign or program was launched:
June 23, 2021
- Which will you submit for this nomination, a video of up to five (5) minutes in length about the nominated campaign or program, OR written answers to the questions for this category? CHOOSE ONE:
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the nominated video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS_4sWH58fI
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this second question: Describe the genesis of the nominated campaign or program: the reasons it was initiated, the challenges it was created to address, the problems it was developed to solve, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 247 words used.
- This was a true David vs. Goliath marketing story. In a category led by a $1.8 billion behemoth that is 45X bigger and in 96,000 more stores than Country Archer, the brand needed to find a way to capture consumers’ hearts and minds and increase our sales. This competitor brand has 96% awareness among jerky users, while Country Archer has just 23% awareness. We started as a small roadside stand grounded by of our 100% grass-fed beef and real ingredient point of difference and since then have grown to be the leader in premium, better-for-you jerky. However, we are still largely unknown with 77% of jerky consumers never having heard of us before, less than 1% market share in mainstream retail channels, and still a family-run start-up with less than $500,000 to spend on national advertising campaign.
- We decided to use all these weaknesses as strengths and leverage our scrappy entrepreneurial spirit to drive awareness with a disruptive risky campaign. We used a play on words to call attention to our 100% grass-fed point of difference – “Calling All Grassholes.” We used this campaign to scream our differentiator – grass-fed beef – with a provocative call-to-action and encouraged consumers to choose the better option. The line “Calling All Grassholes” was a critical element to not just shock and disrupt, but also provided the right amount of hook to get consumers to want to learn more by engaging with our brand and increase sales.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this third question: Describe the development of the campaign or program: the planning process, the goal setting, the creative and media development, the scheduling, etc. (up to 250 words):
Total 203 words used.
- Being an underdog with an already limited budget, we only had one chance to get this right. Strategically, we knew we had to be very disruptive to get people to engage with our brand. We took a risk with the provocative campaign line – “Calling All Grassholes”. The core creative we developed was a 30 second and three 15 second ads that ran across YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
- To have our limited media budget work even harder we front-loaded the campaign, with the majority of media spend within the first two weeks of the campaign, as well as a big PR blitz to really get people talking. The campaign kicked off with an earned media segment on Today with Hoda and Jenna where we created a life-size portrait of the hosts made entirely of our jerky and presented it to them live on their show.
- In addition, to build momentum in-store, we activated an influencer and sampling program at Target that encouraged participants to tweet their support and each week we highlighted a “Grasshole of the Week.”
- The sustained media, organic social and owned channels like email and SMS then worked hard to sustain us for the remainder of the campaign.
- If you are providing written answers to the questions for this category, you must answer this fourth question: Outline the activities and concrete results of this campaign or program since the beginning of 2020. Even if your initiative started before 2020, limit your response to activities and results since the beginning of 2020 only (up to 250 words):
Total 250 words used.
- We had two major objectives for this campaign; to increase sales of Country Archer’s beef jerky products at 2x that of the category average and increase awareness of the Country Archer Provisions brand by exceeding 267 million impressions. We are 45x smaller than the category market leader, so, to stay on the shelf, we need to grow sales and awareness at a rate faster than the category average.
- We exceeded our goals by more than we could have ever imagined. Country Archer’s sales were 10x higher than the category average during our campaign window. We exceed our goal of 2x sales lift vs. the category average – with a sales lift of 20% during the campaign vs. the total category growth of 2% (comparing 10 weeks pre & post campaign).
- In Target, where our shopper marketing campaign ran, taking the consumer from top of the funnel all the way to purchase – targeting non-users, getting them to watch our video, apply to sample our product at Target, and then converting them to advocates of the brand, our dollar velocity improved by 45% and the category market leader declined at -3%.
- Not only did we exceed our sales goals but we nearly doubled our impression goal – reaching over 500 million impressions during the campaign live dates. Our Share of Voice during the campaign ended up being 2x that of the category leader during the campaign live dates – proving that even the underdog can succeed in bringing down the giant.
- You have the option to reference here any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
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